Coast Starlight 14 Detour Trip 4/28/2018

by Chris Guenzler

Norm Orfall posted on Trainorders.com that his car would be going over the Tehachapi Loop on the Coast Starlight on April 28. I then learned the
train would also detour the next day so planned a Coast Starlight Business Class trip as a reward for my Day 8500 on Friday the 27th. With train
tickets set, the question now was where to stay. I checked all the motels in Oakland but only one was under the $100 range and that was the Jack
London Inn so I decided to give it one more try. Chris Parker decided he would ride the Tioga Pass once more because with Amtrak no longer letting
private cars on their trains, it might be his last chance to ride one. He would stay with me in Oakland then ride Business Class with me back to
Los Angeles. So Saturday morning I arose and showered before getting the pages made for this story. Following breakfast I drove down to the Santa
Ana train station and made my way over to Track 1 to wait for my train.

Pacific Surfliner 763 4/28/2018

"Pacific Surfliner 763 arriving at Santa Ana and I boarded the Business Class car then went into the Superliner coach and set up my computer.
The Conductor asked for names at the door so it was so easy boarding the train this morning. The train stopped in Anaheim then Fullerton before
the final sprint to Los Angeles.

Coast Starlight 14 4/28/2018

The Coast Starlight backed into LAUPT and first I met Brain who rode with me on the Circle trip to Oakland. Once we were boarded by name only
at this pont I took a right hand side seat with Brian across the aisle from me upstairs. Soon other passengers joined us including a new friend
Dennis from Yardley Pennslyvania. Julian from Atlanta is also in our car. Yolanda is our car attendant. Chris Parker is on the Tioga Pass and he
will have a great trip. We will all have a great trip in Coast Starlight Business Class. We left LAUPT at 10:15 AM, five minutes late and we were
off on this unique trip.

We started the detour at 10:31 AM at Burbank Junction.

The water project into the San Fernando Valley. We slowed to meet Metrolink 262 near Sun Valley. We made it through the tunnel and I saw Bill Compton
at the north end of it. At Saugas they threw off a fare evader. We went through the tunnels then went through Soledad Canyon.

Views in Soledad Canyon.

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The Vasquez Rocks.

Another lesser known rock formation.

At Ravenna we went into the siding to meet Metrolink 264. We ran through Vincent Grade/Acton station then descended into Palmdale where everyone's
rare mileage would start at Palmdale Jct. The train then sprinted across the Antelope Valley. I went to the Dining Car for lunch and had a Beef Angus
Burger. We met Union Pacific freight trains at both Dennis and Oban during lunch. The train ran over Ansel Hill before we dropped into Mojave.

We passed through the windmills and started up the westbound grade of the Tehachapi Mountains.

The Tehachapi with Monolith to the right. Soon we went under CA Highway 58 and reached the summit of the Tehachapi Mountains. We ran through the
town of Tehachapi and crossed the rest of the valley.

The train is now headed down to Cable.

We reached Cable and would next take the tunnel section of this line.

The green of the Tehachapi Mountains.

Our train at Marcel.

The train entering Tunnel 10. Now lets enjoy the trip around the Tehachapi Loop.

The trip around the Tehachapi Loop.

Green hills west of Rowen.

Looking down at the BNSF train at Caliente.

Bealville from west switch at Cable.

Train at Bealville

The green hills and cloudy skies

More on the curves at Bealville.

West switch at Bealville.

West of Tunnel 2.

The train entering Tunnel 1. Now the trip around the horseshoe curve at Caliente.

The trip around the horseshoe curve at Caliente.

Kern Junction. We made our Bakersfield stop from the arrival 3:00 PM with a departure of 3:34 PM. No one was allowed off as we were surrounded by mainline tracks.
North of Bakersfield we met Train 11 at Cawelo then I visited with people in the lounge car. Return to my seat and gave updates on Trainorders.com.

Switcher at an industry at Traver.

You can see all the way to the Sierra Nevada Mountains through the haze.

Calwa Crossing in south Fresno.

BNSF mainline heading north to Fresno. The train ran through Fresno at 5:22 PM.

California High speed construction near Highway City. We went to the Dining Car at 5:30 PM and I had the Signture Steak with potatoes
which was excellent. Good conversations were had. Train 14 did Madera at 5:49 PM, Chowchilla at 6:02PM, Merced at 6:17 Turlock at 6:40 PM
and at Modesto at 6:51 PM. The train ran onto Lathrop where it had to be wyed.

The train on the southeast leg of the Lathrop Wye. We arrived at South Lathrop at 7:21 PM.

The middle of the Lathrop Wye. We left North Lathrop at 7:42 PM.

The train on the northeast leg of the Lathrop Wye. We stopped to change pilot engineers then left East Lathrop at 7:50 PM. We ran back
to the connection to the old Western Pacific and started the run for Oakland. We ran through Tracy then climbed the east slope of Altamont
Pass, arriving at Altamont siding at 8:21 PM and Livermore at 8:40 PM. We sprinted through Pleasanton then ran through Hearst and Niles Canyon.
We went through Niles at 9:09 PM then stopped at Newark to drop off the pilot engineer. From here we turned onto the Mulford Line which ended
the detour and ran the rest of the way to Oakland, arriving there at 9:56 pm, 32 minutes late. I detrained feeling fantastic after a great day
of train riding. Tomorrow I get to do it all over again. I walked back to the Tioga Pass and found Chris Parker and Bob Jacoby and after saying
goodbye to Bob Riskie, the three of us walked to the Jack London Inn for the night.